April 11, 2025

Federal spending freezes are continuing to hit the local level. The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board couldn’t buy electric buses, then local libraries were put in a bind. Now it’s local food banks that are feeling the pinch.

Within the last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled a $250,000 food order to the Chester County Food Bank, and this has put a hurt on Kennett Area Community Service.

KACS CEO Leah Reynolds said the KACS Food Cupboard gets 42 percent of its monthly donations from the county food bank through a program called TEFAP, or The Emergency Food Assistance Program. She called it a critical situation.

“Many of our neighbors are already struggling to make ends meet, and this disruption could worsen the situation,” she said.

According to Reynolds, KACS serves 22 municipalities in Chester County. Among those 22 municipalities are Kennett Square and Kennett Township. But some others are in the relatively affluent area of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District: Pocopson, Pennsbury, Newlin, and East and West Marlborough townships.

From 2023 to 2024, there was a 12 percent increase in people turning to KACS for services, food, and emergency assistance, and the number of people needing monthly food assistance from KACS rose in those municipalities from 2,556 in March of 2024 to 3,326 in March of 2025.

“We’re continuing to see that rise, especially with people needing emergency food boxes… And we don’t turn anyone away who comes for food,” she said. “We provide more than $2.2 million in food and emergency assistance, but food is our biggest program,” she said.

This March alone, KACS distributed close to 80,000 pounds of food.

On top of giving out more emergency food, Reynolds said there’s been a decline in the availability of food she can obtain for KACS, and part of the problem is waste.

“Forty percent of the food we see for sale in any retail area, pharmacies that sell food, gas stations that sell food, groceries, anybody that sells food, 40 percent ends up in a landfill,” she said. “We could do better.”

While the economics and waste are working against her mission, Reynolds said she’s grateful for the donations and offerings of help that have come from the community.

“This community, since 2019, has shown me over and over again that they want nonprofits to stay open doing what they need to do. They want us to take care of the community. We have enjoyed support from individuals.”

As an example, Reynolds said there is a retired couple that, when doing their own weekly grocery shopping, buys an extra bag of food that they donate to KACS.

“Their goal is to give 1,000 pounds of food in a year,” she said. That one small gift makes a difference. That ripple-effect giving is what we need for the community to hear…In all these six years, I have consistently been able to say thanks for all you do to love your neighbor. ’Do what you can’ should be the call to action.”

Reynolds said the way to judge how a nonprofit is doing is to look at their sources of income. The more diverse those sources are, the better, and they should not be dependent on the government, that government should not be the primary source of funding for those nonprofits.

In that sense, KACS is on some more solid ground than others. The organization’s last annual report indicates a total operating revenue of little less than $5.82 million. Almost $4 million comes in from donations while less than $203,000 comes from the government.

But the loss of money from the agriculture department freeze needs to be recouped somehow. Fundraising events brought in $130,000 last year, but that doesn’t offset the loss of 42 percent of its donations from the county food bank.

People interested in helping KACS can make cash or food donations. For information on how to donate, the website is https://kacsimpact.org, the phone number is 610-928-3556, and the email address is info@KACSIpmact.org.